Mail pieces or articles are conventionally conveyed or transported within mail trays and mail tubs, the mail trays usually being utilized to convey or transport letter mail, while the mail tubs are usually utilized to convey or transport other types of mail articles, such as, for example, magazines, newspapers, and the like. The mail trays and mail tubs conventionally comprise receptacles which are provided with suitable lids or cover members in order to physically maintain the mail pieces or articles within the mail trays and mail tubs during the conveyance or transportation of the same along the conveyor or transportation route, however, the lids or cover members must obviously be removed at a predetermined time and at a predeterminedly designated work station of the automated conveying or transporation apparatus or system in order to permit the mail pieces or articles to be accessed and removed from the mail tubs and mail trays in accordance with suitable routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing techniques and operations. Operational difficulties, problems, breakdowns, stoppages, and the like, such as, for example, the jamming of the automated equipment or apparatus, and the necessary time and operator requirements to again render the automated equipment or apparatus operational, or the inadvertent and undesirable discharge of the mail piece or article contents from the mail tray receptacles, can, however, sometimes occur, be encountered, or be caused, if the individual mail tray and mail tub receptacles are not in fact properly disposed or oriented upon the automated conveyor or transportation apparatus or equipment.
More particularly, in accordance with desirable routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing techniques and operations, individual mail pieces or articles are initially deposited within the mail trays and mail tubs, and the mail trays and mail tubs are adapted to be disposed upon automated conveyor or transportation apparatus in order to subsequently convey, transport, or route the mail pieces or articles toward downstream locations at which the various mail piece or article routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing techniques and operations can occur or be performed. As has been noted heretofore, the mail tubs and mail trays conventionally comprise receptacles which are provided with suitable lids or cover members in order to physically maintain the mail pieces or articles within the mail trays and mail tubs during the transportation, conveyance, or routing of the same along the conveyor or transportation route. It has also been noted heretofore that the lids or cover members must obviously be removed at a predetermined time and at a predeterminedly designated work station of the automated conveying and transporting apparatus or system in order to in fact permit the mail pieces or articles to be accessed and removed from the mail tubs and mail trays in accordance with the desirable routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing techniques and operations. In order to permit or facilitate the proper removal of the lids or cover members from the mail trays and mail tubs, however, it is imperative that the mail trays and mail tubs be properly disposed upon the conveyor or transportation mechanism in accordance with a predetermined orientation.
More particularly, it is necessary, from an operational point of view, that the bottom wall or bottom surface of each mail tub be disposed upon the upper or top surface of the conveyor or transport mechanism. In this manner, the mail tubs will be able to properly structurally interface and operationally interact with suitable automated equipment or apparatus whereby such automated equipment or apparatus will not become jammed and will in fact be able to remove the lids or cover members from the mail tubs. In a similar manner, it is likewise necessary, from an operational point of view, that the bottom wall or bottom surface of each mail tray be disposed upon the upper or top surface of the conveyor or transport mechanism. In this manner, the inadvertent and undesirable discharge of the mail pieces or articles from the mail trays will not occur and will effectively be prevented when the lids or cover members are likewise removed from the mail trays by such automated equipment or apparatus. Unfortunately, the foregoing proper orientation or disposition of the mail trays and mail tubs upon the conveyor or transport mechanism is not always able to be achieved in a relatively high-speed, secure, and cost-effective manner. For example, in accordance with conventional modes of operation for readying or preparing the mail tubs and mail trays, and the mail pieces contained therein, for downstream routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing, a plurality or multiple number of mail trays, such as, for example, anywhere from two to three dozen mail trays, or alternatively, a plurality or multiple number of mail tubs, such as, for example, a dozen or more mail tubs, or still further, a mixture of such mail trays and mail tubs, are initially disposed or loaded within suitable mail tub or mail tray containers. At a predetermined location, the mail trays and mail tubs are adapted to be manually unloaded from such mail tray and mail tub containers, however, it can be readily appreciated that such manual operations, techniques, or modes of operation are obviously labor-intensive, quite tedious and fatiguing, time-consuming, and costly.
Therefore, in order to render such operations, comprising the unloading of the mail trays and mail tubs from the containers, less labor intensive, less tedious and fatiguing, less time-consuming, and more economically viable, suitable automated equipment or apparatus has been desired and sought, and has now in fact been developed and implemented. Such automated equipment or apparatus, however, has not proven to be the ultimate solution to the aforenoted operational drawbacks in view of the fact that such automated equipment or apparatus has sometimes proven to be somewhat problematic. For example, such automated equipment or apparatus is specifically structured and designed to facilitate the automatic discharge of the mail trays and mail tubs from the aforenoted containers by means of gravitational assistance. More particularly, in order to in fact achieve the automatic gravitational discharge of the mail trays and mail tubs from the aforenoted containers, the containers are adapted to operationally interface with suitable unloader mechanisms which are, in turn, adapted to elevationally tilt the containers to a predetermined inclined extent whereby the mail trays and mail tubs can effectively be discharged from the containers, in accordance with sliding modes or conveying techniques, onto suitable take-away conveyors.
Accordingly, in light of the foregoing, the mail trays and mail tubs are gravitationally discharged from the containers and onto the take-away conveyors for subsequent downstream routing, sorting, batch-forming, and ultimate mail piece or article delivery processing. Ideally, it is desired that the mail trays and mail tubs will be discharged onto the take-away conveyors in a properly aligned and oriented manner. Unfortunately, the mail trays and mail tubs are not always properly aligned upon the take-away conveyors with respect to each other as well as with respect to the longitudinal axes of the conveyors. In addition, in view of the aforenoted sliding modes or movements, the mail trays and mail tubs sometimes become piggybacked atop one another, or still further, the mail trays and mail tubs are sometimes improperly oriented wherein, for example, the mail trays and mail tubs are not disposed in their correct positional modes wherein, for example, the mail trays or mail tubs are either inverted or disposed upside down, or alternatively, they may be disposed upon or supported by one of their side wall surfaces as opposed to being properly disposed upon or supported by means of their bottom surfaces. It is further noted that while robotic equipment has also been utilized, in conjunction with the automated discharge equipment or apparatus, so as to properly align the mail tubs and mail trays upon the take-away conveyors, either with respect to each other, as well as with respect to the longitudinal axes of the conveyor mechanisms, such robotic equipment is only capable of properly aligning the mail tubs and mail trays upon the take-away conveyors with respect to each other, as well as with respect to the longitudinal axes of the conveyors, or alternatively, such robotic equipment is only capable of removing individual mail trays or mail tubs from their piggy-backed dispositions with respect to each other.
More particularly, or still further, the robotic equipment is not able to properly orient the mail trays and mail tubs in their correct dispositional modes upon the take-away conveyors whereby the mail tubs and mail trays would be properly disposed upon or supported by means of their bottom surfaces. Accordingly, the mail tubs and mail trays must be properly oriented by manual means or operations which, again, are labor-intensive, tedious and fatiguing, time-consuming, and costly. Other automated equipment or systems have also been proposed whereby such improperly oriented mail trays and mail tubs can be properly oriented, however, such automated equipment or systems are relatively complex and effectively result in an interruption of the relatively smooth and constant flow processing of the mail trays and mail tubs along the normal conveyor path. In accordance with such automated equipment or systems, for example, the improperly oriented or disoriented mail trays and mail tubs are effectively removed from the normal conveyor path, dispatched to off-line processing equipment which properly orients the particular mail tray or mail tub, and subsequently re-introduces the properly oriented mail tray or mail tub back into the normal conveyor path.
A need therefore exists in the art for new and improved automated mail tray and mail tub handling or conveyor apparatus or equipment wherein improperly oriented mail tubs and mail trays will be able to be properly, accurately, and quickly oriented by means of an in-line conveyor mechanism whereby the mail trays and mail tubs will be able to properly operationally interface or interact with downstream automated equipment or apparatus for removing the lid members or covers from the mail trays and mail tubs in order to properly access the mail pieces contained within the mail trays and mail tubs, wherein jamming of the automated equipment or apparatus will effectively be prevented, wherein the mail pieces contained within the mail trays will not be undesirably or inadvertently discharged from the mail trays, wherein the implementation of the new and improved automated mail tray and mail tub handling or conveyor apparatus or equipment as an in-line conveyor mechanism advantageously facilitates and promotes the constant and continuous flow-through processing of the mail trays and mail tubs within the over-all postal mail conveyor or transporation handling system, and wherein still further, the operational and economic disadvantages and drawbacks, characteristic of manual postal mail conveyor or handling systems or operations, will not be encountered.